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What is Happiness?

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What is Happiness?

Ahmad Alipour6, Ahmad Pedram7, Mohammad Reza Abedi8, Zeinab Rostami9

Abstract

Recently the researchers attend to positive psychology instead of attention to negative

problems as disorders and disturbances. Happiness and happy person has spicily
characteristics and benefits that the person how is depressed or unhappy hasn't it. In this
study tried to more know happiness, the benefits and the role of happiness in other domain
like as work and etc.

Keywords: Positive psychology, Happiness, The history of happiness

Introduction
Happiness is primarily a subjective phenomenon “for which the final judge is whoever
lives inside a person’s skin” (Diener, 1984). The ancients believed happiness was not achieved,
but either god-given or due to chance. If happiness was experienced, it was not a function of the
individual but rather was generously bestowed upon them by the cosmos (Bruhin et al, 2009).

At what point in time did happiness change from a divine gift to a self-evident truth?
Enlightenment thinkers believed that happiness could be attained in this life. If one were not
happy, the logic went; the prescription was to alter one’s beliefs, customs, government, or living
conditions. Happiness as a self-evident truth is reflected in The Constitution and remains today.
Peruse the self-help section of a local bookstore, and books on happiness abound. But is being
happy as easy as people are led to believe (Clark et al, 2010)?

People typically equate happiness with the yellow smiley-faced icon. Happiness, many
maintain, is about feeling “good.” It is about massages, lazy Sundays, and poolside margaritas.
Hershey’s has even recently marketed a dark chocolate bar that has happiness imprinted all over
it. Consumers are presumably meant to believe happiness will engulf them with each morsel.
After all, eating chocolate is followed by joy. However, happiness is not solely synonymous with
intense pleasure; that is too shallow a conceptualization (Clark et al, 2008).

Happiness is much deeper. Aristotle’s notion of eudaimonia is an example. Eudaimonia

(i.e., happiness) comes from the Greek eu (good) and daimon (God, spirit, demon). Aristotle
maintained that eudaimonia comes from identifying one’s virtues, cultivating them, and living
life in accord. Happiness is beyond feeling good; it is about doing good (Di Tella et al, 2006).

Cicero believed that “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all
others”(World of Quotes.com, n.d.).Therefore, to live a life of eudaimonia, an individual high in
dispositional gratitude may embark on a gratitude visit or count their blessings. The grateful

6
- Ph.D. Ahmad Alipour, Department of education, university of Tehran, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.
7
- Ph.D. student. Ahmad Pedram, Department of education, university of Tehran, Tehran, Islamic Republic of
Iran.
8
- Ph.D. Mohammad Reza Abedi, Department of counseling and guidance, university of Isfahan, Isfahan,
Islamic Republic of Iran.
9
- MS student. Zeinab Rostami, Department of counseling and guidance, university of Isfahan, Isfahan, Islamic
Republic of Iran.

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individual might send friends a hand written letter indicating sincere appreciation for the gift
bestowed upon him or her—lifelong friendship. Following such practices, the grateful individual
has made a concerted effort in realizing his or her virtue of gratitude. Happiness is a natural
byproduct, a gift in itself (Fray et al, 2002).

In 2002 Martin E.P. Seligman proposed a theory of happiness that is similar to Aristotle’s
eudaimonia. According to Seligman, authentic happiness is achieved upon identifying and
cultivating one’s signature strengths (e.g., curiosity, vitality, gratitude) daily in work, love, and
play. Three distinct paths exist. The pleasant path involves experiencing positive emotions about
the past (e.g., forgiveness, contentment), present (e.g., joy, ebullience), and future (e.g, optimism,
hope). Those following the path of meaning typically report a robust attachment to something
larger than them and have a strong sense of purpose in life (Headay et al, 1992;Kahneman et al,
2006 ). Finally, individuals traveling along the engaged path often report “being in the zone”
or experiencing flow. The “full life” is realized when one is fully engaged on all three paths. The
researcher investigated the relationship between authentic happiness and life satisfaction in an
internet sample of 845 adults. Pleasure, meaning, and engagement all individually predicted life
satisfaction. Both meaning and engagement were stronger predictors compared to pleasure.
Indeed, either having a sense of purpose in life or experiencing flow were more important in
terms of life satisfaction in contrast to living a life of pleasure. Of particular interest was the
finding that respondents who self-reported to be high on all three paths to happiness reported the
greatest life satisfaction (the “full life”), whereas those simultaneously low on all three paths
reported the least satisfaction (the “empty life”). While temperance is one of six virtues in the
classification manual of human strengths, it seems that to achieve authentic happiness, more is
better (Kahneman et al, 2006).

Another conceptualization of happiness comes from the work of Ed Diener. Happiness,

which he calls subjective well-being, is comprised of three components: (a) frequent positive
affect, (b) infrequent negative affect, and (c) high life satisfaction (i.e., the cognitive component).
Though related, these three components appear independent (Sandvik et al, 1993).

Measuring happiness is typically accomplished via self-report. This seems appropriate

and even necessary given the subjective nature of happiness. Though self-reported happiness is
subjective, research supports using these measures in empirically investigating happiness for
several reasons. First, subjective happiness is related to relatively more “objective” measures
such as peer and family member reports of well-being, smiling behavior, ratings derived from
clinical interviews, and physiological responses. Second, social desirability only modestly
correlates with self-reported subjective well-being. Finally, subjective well-being measures
demonstrate construct validity. In sum, researchers take seriously self-reported happiness,
especially when supported by converging data with these other “objective” measures (Uchida et
al, 2009).

What’s All The Buzz About Being Happy?

Definitions aside, happiness was not always a central focus in psychology. In a 2003
recount of modern life, Greg Easterbrook provided several intriguing hypotheses as to why
happiness is a popular field of study in today’s psychology. Westerners may be suffering from
catalogue induced anxiety. While objectively living a life the “greatest generation” could only
dream (e.g., air conditioning, two cars per household, frequent dining out), in comparison to our
neighbors, people may think they are “slumming it.” With McMansions (i.e., a house built on a
large scale, but considered ostentatious) and “bloated homes” prolific in contemporary suburbia,
a three car garage seems essential (Suh et al, 2004).

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In this spirit, there also appears to be the blurring of needs and wants. As George Will
aptly put a need is defined, in contemporary America, as a 48-hour-old want. Here, the virtue of
temperance seems helpful. Finally, the nice-hotel room factor is paralyzing. While people have
more personal freedom, Easterbrook argues, they work longer hours, many to support
materialism. Longer office hours may breed feelings of isolation. Sure, the hotel room is
gorgeous, but people are not having a good time because no one else came on the trip.
Relatedness being a basic human need, conspicuous consumption can erode happiness. With
depression having increased 10 fold since the 1950’s and life satisfaction not budging (though
real income has more than doubled), it is no mystery why happiness has become a hot topic
(Pflug, 2009).

Can We Make Ourselves Lastingly Happier?

The objective indicators movement of the 1960’s and 70’s investigated the relationship
among happiness and demographic variables, such as age, sex, ethnicity, and education. Decades
of research unequivocally show that demographics bear a smaller relationship with happiness
then conventional wisdom may lead one to believe. The researchers determined that less than
10% of happiness could be explained by demographics while in 1984, Diener indicated 15%. Life
circumstances, which include demographic factors, account for 10%. While demographics affect
happiness, the impact is negligible (Oishi et al, 2001).

Like most other psychological phenomena, genetics plays a role. Happiness is partly
determined by one’s genetic set point. This central value within the set range is stable over time.
So if one is jumping for joy today, he or she will likely be smiling from ear to ear tomorrow. In
1996, after examining twin and adoption data, the researchers concluded that happiness was 80%
genetic. They maintained that becoming happier was as pointless as trying to be taller; conserve
your energy(Lyubomirsky, 2001).

The surest route to happiness is quality social relationships. With many today feeling
overwhelmed and living through “just in time” schedules where every second is accounted for,
resources are scant. If people aim to become happier as effectively and efficiently as possible,
then people should put energy into family, friends, romantic partners, and colleagues.
Researchers assert that social relationships may be the “greatest single cause” of happiness. In
1992 and 1999, Myers concluded that individuals in close relationships report better physical,
mental, and emotional quality of life, as well as more adaptive coping responses to stress and
adversity. If people aim to be happy, they should enjoy a latte at Starbucks while catching up with
an old buddy. Social relationships matter (Lu et al, 2001)!

In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, Michael Fordyce attempted to increase empirically
happiness with his 14 “fundamentals for happiness.” Aside from cognitive interventions (e.g.,
“develop positive, optimistic thinking”), participants were instructed to “keep busy and be more
active,” “get better organized and plan things out,” “spend more time socializing,” and behave in
ways consistent with the idea that “close relationships are the number one source of happiness”.
Participants reported that although the cognitive interventions were extremely instrumental in
enhancing their happiness, the other interventions related to socializing were also deemed just as
effective. This was psychology’s first glimpse at the powerful effects of volitional activity on
happiness (Lee et al, 1999).

Lyubomirsky and colleagues are the prominent figures in uncovering the mystery to
achieving sustainable happiness. Research demonstrates a strong relationship between kindness
and self-reported happiness. When kind to others, we may feel a greater sense of
interconnectedness, more confidence in our ability to help, and pride. Kindness seems like a
perfect prescription for happiness (Kim et al, 2007).

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Elevation is a positive emotion described as a warm, uplifting feeling people experience

when they see others unexpectedly act prosocially. College students induced to feel elevation
reported wanting to help others more than students either induced to feel happy or neutral
emotions. a meta-analysis of over 300 happiness found that the relationship between kindness and
happiness appears bi-directional. While kindness leads to happiness, happiness may also lead to
kindness. If the goal is to increase kindness, data support inducing either elevation or happiness
(Izquierdo, 2005).

In 2004 reserchers experimentally investigated random acts of kindness. College students

were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions. Half were asked to perform five random acts of
kindness a week for 6 weeks. Examples of such random acts included dropping coins into a
stranger’s parking meter, donating blood, or visiting a sick relative. The other half served as
controls and just completed the measures at pre and post-test. The controls experienced a
decrease in well-being over the 6-week period and those who conducted random acts of kindness
experienced a significant increase in well-being over the 6-week period. Being kind can feasibly
make the person and the recipient happier (Goody et al, 2009).

Counting blessings has become a classic happiness intervention. Happy people are
grateful people. In a groundbreaking study asked college students to count their blessings (i.e.,
keep a gratitude journal) on a weekly basis for 10 weeks. These participants exercised more
regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were
more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life
events. When asked to count blessings on a daily basis for 16 days (only 13 were included in the
observation period), college students who kept the gratitude journal reported higher levels of the
positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy compared to a
focus on hassles or a downward social comparison (i.e., thinking one is better off than others)
(Galati et al, 2006).

Participants in the daily gratitude condition also reported more prosocial behavior,
namely helping someone with a personal problem or offering emotional support, relative to the
hassles or social comparison condition. (Emmons, 1986).

According to Fredrickson, positive emotions broaden our thought-action repertoires and

build enduring physical, intellectual, and social resources. Here, gratitude caused greater kindness
and generosity. Over time, such altruistic behavior will likely build social resources via
strengthening social bonds by fostering likeability from others that in turn increases the chances
of receiving future aid through the norm of reciprocity. Finally these effects were replicated in
adults with neuromuscular diseases over 3 weeks. Not only did patients who counted blessings
indicate more positive affect and life satisfaction via self-report, but such advantages were also
reported by their respective spouse or significant other. The powerful effects of gratitude seem to
be both private and public (Diener, 1986).

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Extending this work to early adolescence in 2007, researchers conducted a novel

investigation. Classes of 7th and 8th graders were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions:
gratitude, hassles, or a no-treatment control. Those in the gratitude condition were asked to
“count up to five things you are grateful for.” Students in the hassles group were asked to focus
on irritants. Controls simply completed the measures. After 2 weeks of counting blessings, the
gratitude condition was associated with enhanced self-reported gratitude, optimism, life
satisfaction, and decreased negative affect. At the 3-week follow-up, students instructed to count
their blessings showed more gratitude toward people who had helped them, which in turn
predicted more gratitude in general. These results suggested that counting general blessings in
adolescence may be related to appreciating specific gifts (e.g., gratitude for receiving aid) via
priming them to acknowledge the specific instances of kindness in daily life (Calvet-Mir et al,
2008). The most significant finding was the robust relationship between gratitude and
satisfaction with school experience at both the immediate 2-week post-test and 3-week follow-up.
Whether young, old, or coping with physical illness, saying, thank you is beyond manners
(Calvet-Mir et al, 2008).

With a proliferation of happiness interventions, how does counting blessings uphold

against some of the other well-being techniques? The researchers compared counting blessings,
visualizing best possible selves (BPS), and life details in college students. The BPS exercise
required participants to think of them in the future and consider having realized their life dreams.
Controls given the life details exercise were instructed to write about the ordinary details of their
life (e.g., attending class). The interventions and measures were completed at the pre-test and
then again 2 and 4 weeks later. Participants were asked to continue with the exercises at least
twice in between data collections (Calvet-Mir et al, 2008).

Results indicated that the BPS exercise may be better at raising and maintaining positive
mood compared to the other two conditions. In this study, counting blessings came in second. It
seems that engendering gratitude may be more difficult to achieve compared to thinking about
accomplishing life’s goals. Cultivating happiness via counting blessings may be a path of greater
resistance. If one is willing to work, do not throw in the towel. People should count blessings!
But if the “just in time” schedule wears people out, then BPS may be the best bet (Calvet-Mir et
al, 2008).
Future Directions
Experimental research by Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, and colleagues has moved happiness
inquiry beyond the correlates to understanding the mechanisms, processes, and outcomes
associated with sustainable well-being. Research in this vein should continue if the ultimate goal
is not just to learn who is happy and why, but to identify scientifically proven paths to long-term
well-being. Moderating variables such as personality (e.g., extraversion) and the person-activity
fit should continue to be explored as these variables may provide insight into augmenting
treatment effects. (Clarck et al, 2010).

Wealth, human rights, equality between people, the fulfillment of basic biological needs,
individualism, political stability, interpersonal trust, and thinking happiness is important all
predict national happiness. With happiness being shown to cause successful outcomes (e.g., high
salaries, good physical health, supportive social networks), policy-makers should consider
making the assessment and promotion of their citizen’s quality of life a national priority.
Research on national well-being should continue and aim to isolate the effects of individual
predictors. Finally, happiness research will advance if methodologically and statistically
sophisticated techniques such as multivariate replicated single-subject repeated measures designs,
experience sampling procedures, and analytic techniques such as multilevel modeling are used
(Clarck et al, 2010).

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